Tool for spreading the tubes of water-tube boilers.



J. KEERS. TOOL FOR SPREADING THE TUBES 0F WATER TUBE BOILBRS. APPLICATION FILED Nov. 1, 1913.

1 ,092,840. Patented Apr. 14, 1914.

CQLUMBM PLANUGRAPH Co., WASHINGTON. D. c'.

JOHN Kriens, OF BROOKLYN, New YORK.

TOOL 'FOR SPREADING THE TUBES OF`WATER-TUBE BOILERS.

Loeasao.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Apr. iid, i914.

Application led November 1, 1913. Serial No. 798,644.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, JOHN Knees, a citizen .(of the United States, and a residenty of Brooklyn, in the county of Kings and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Tools for Spreading the Tubes of Tater-Tube Boilers, of which the following is a specication.

This invention relates to a tool for spreading the tubes of water-tube boilers and is an improvement upon that disclosed in the patent granted tome December 30, 1913, No. 1,082,809, which in turn was an improvement upon that disclosed in a prior patent to Heely and Keers of January 2, 1906, No. 808,920. In said I-Ieely and Keers patent there is disclosed a spreading tool adapted to effect the spreading of watertubes of boilers to facilitate tlie insertion of the substantially diamond-shaped firebricks ordinarily placed between the watertubes of a boiler in juxtaposition with baflie-plates to protect such baffle-plates from the direct action of the intense heat of the furnace. By the use of such a tool these tubes can be readily spread sufficiently to enable a workman to insert such firebrick in place in the correspondingly shaped space between the spread tubes without cutting or weakening the brick and without leaving any openings between adjacent bricks through which the baffle-plates would be directly exposed to the action of the flames.

In my aforesaid patent the principal improvements upon the tool of said earlier patent consisted in placing the spreaderheads end to end instead of side by side and mounting their respective carriers one within the other, these changes result-ing in a stronger, simpler, and more compact tool for spreading such watertubes.

In neither of the tools of the aforesaid patents, however, was there any provision made for permitting play of one of the tubespreading members or spreader-heads relative to the other after such members or heads were positioned and while maintained in a predetermined adjusted relation lengthwise of their carrier.

The principal object of the present improvement is to provide for such play of one of the tube-spreading members, the construction preferred being one in which the outer spreader-head is pivoted on the end of its carrier in such a manner that it will rock slightly relatively to the other after being adjusted, and becauseof this, may be more readily brought into engagement with the tubes with which it coacts without straining any of the parts.

Other features of the invention not hereinbefore referred to will be hereinafter described and claimed and are illustrated in `the accompanying drawings, in which- Figure l is a sectional elevation of my improved tube-spreading tool in operative relation with a plurality of tubes to be spread; Fig. 2 is an edge elevation of the main portion or working end of the tool, and Fig. 3 is a similar view of the opposite end or handle portion of the tool.

Similar characters designate like parts in all the figures of the drawings.

As in my aforesaid patent, the principal elements of the present tube-spreading tool are a carrier and two or more tube-spreading members embodied in spreader-heads disposed preferably end to end one in advance of the other lengthwise of the carrier, and movable away from and toward each other, for the purpose of effecting a corresponding spreading of two or more tubes and the release of such tubes after the same have been spread. Usually there will be two pairs of these tube-spreading members, one pair carried by each spreader-head, and means for moving the two spreader-heads in such a manner that two of the working faces thereof will move in one direction to spread one pair of tubes and two other working faces of 'said spreader-heads will move in a direction transverse to the first for the purpose of spreading another pair of tubes. The carrier supporting the tubespreading members or working faces of the tool has two main parts one of which carries one spreader-head and the other of which carries the other spreader-head. rlihe particular construction of these parts of the carrier may be varied considerably.

In the construction shown the main or fixed member of the carrier is designated generally by 2 and in this case comprises several sections suitably connected. One section constituting the handle portion of the device is indicated at 3 and another at 4:. 'Ihe'part 4 is a suitable piece of tubing adapted to be readily connected at its opposite end-s to coacting` elements of the device. rIhis connection may be made in any lthe movable part of the carrier.

suitable manner, one end of the pipe or tube 4 being threaded into the coacting end of the member, while the opposite end of said pipe or tube is also preferably threaded into the coacting portion of one of the spreader-heads.

As before stated, the other main member of the carrier is preferably mounted so as to have the same longitudinal axis as the part 2 just described. T-'his other part of the carrier is preferably a movable steel rod, designated generally |by 7, mounted to slide in thek tubular member 2 in such a manner as to be adjusted to any desired relative longitudinal position within limits. The extreme end of this rod is sho'wn as a threaded member 8, and as having an opening, 9, at its end for the reception of a bar or rod for turning it and having a smooth, reduced portion at its inner end, as shown at 10, for coupling to an intermediate rod section, 11. This coupling may be made in any suitable manner that permits the part 7 to turn relatively to the part 11 without turning the latter. The connections shown are a threaded sleeve, 12, fastened to one end of the rod section 11, and pins, 13, located between lateral cheeks bounding the reduced portion 10 of the threaded section 8 of the rod. The rod section 11 is also shown as so formed at its opposite end as to be readily coupled to and uncoupled from another rod section, such as 14, here shown as an I-rod. the connection illustrated being a threaded steel dowel-pin, 15, seated in correspondingly threaded longitudinal bores in the abutting ends of the sections ll and 14. The eye of this rod section 14 is indicated at 16.

For the purpose of advancing' or Withdrawing the rod 7 in the tube 2 of the carrier the tube has suitable internal threads through which the threaded portion 8 of the rod is passed. These threads carried by the tubular member may 'be formed in a plain square nut, 17, inserted in the handle portion 3 of the carrier by sliding it into place through a correspondingly squared opening, 18, in said handle. It will be seen that the nut 17 is held by the adjoining walls against both longitudinal and turning movements.

The tube-spreading members are, as heretofore preferably arranged in pairs, one member of each pair being carried by a spreaderhead at one end of the fixed part of the carrier and the other member of each pair by a spreader-head at the correspondingendnof e spreader-heads shown are kcomplementary members one of which is illustrated as having a tubular extension for connection to the tubular section 4 of the carrier while the other is illustrated as having means for connecting it to the outer end of the rod, thatY is to say, to the outermost section 14 of the stantially central, longitudinal socket, 22,

the walls, 23 and 24, of which determine its movements in both directions about a pivot', suoli as 24. This pivot is a pin 0r rivet passing through the eye 16 of the rod sec- Y tion 14 and through aimed, transverse bores Y in the spreader-head 2l at opposite sides thereof. This vrivet may be drivenV into place and headed up after th-e eye 16 has been inserted' in the socket and' the pin passed through said eye. This socket is preferably of substantially the same width as the rod itself, there being just sufficient clearance to permit free rocking movement of the spreader-head 21 about its pivot. It will be clear from the foregoing that when the parts have been adjusted in any desired relation longitudinally and the tool is inserted between the tubes to be spread, the spreader-head 21, without change of adjustment, pivoting on the pin 24, may rock slightly about said pivot to conform to the positions of the tubes with which it comes in Contact, and thus may be more readily positioned and manipulated without straining the tubes to be spread or the elements of the tool itself. Y

In the preferred construction each of the spreader-heads 20 and 21 has, as is usual, two tube-spreading members or faces dis posed at different angles to the longitudinal axis of the tool, the working faces of one spreaderhead being designated generally by 25 and 26 and those of the other by 27 and 28. The manner in which these cooperate in pairs tol spread the tubes will be obvious from Fig. 1. All four of these faces preferably occupy the same plane and are of the full width of the head of the tool, and the thrust is borne by all in substantially the same way, this result being secured by so constructing the spreader-heads that they lie end to end, one in advance of the other lengthwise of the tool, instead of side by side.

When the movable part or rod 7 is moved upward in the iiXed or tubular part 2, the working faces 26 and 27 will spread the tubes, t, in a direction nearly vertical, and at the same time the working faces 25 and 28 will spread the tubes, t, in a direction at approximately a right angle thereto, that is, in a direction, as here shown, that makes a sharp angle with the horizontal. Before the tubes are thus spread the tool is inserted edgewise between the tubes either from above or below the bank of tubes and then turned to the position shown in Fig. 1, this being facilitated by the rocking of the spreader-head 21 about its pivot, after which the spreading of the tubes by moving the rod 7 inward may be begun. The engaging screw threads of the section 8 of the rod and or"V the nut 17 will of course serve to maintain the two parts of the carrier, and hence the two spreaderheads and the two pairs of tubes engaged by them in their proper relative positions. While the tubes are thus held in said spread positions the fire-brick may be inserted or removed in any well known way.

What I claim is:

1. A tool for spreading the tubes of water-tube boilers, embodying a carrier comprising two main parts one of which is slidable lengthwise of the other, a pair of tubespreading members secured respectively to said carriers one of which members is pivoted to its carrier to swing relatively to the other tube-spreading member, and means for moving said tube-spreading members toward and from each other.

2. A tool for spreading the tubes of water-tube boilers, embodying a'carrier comprising two main parts one of which is slidable in the other, a pair of tube-spreading members secured respectively to said carriers and. disposed end to end one of which members is movable toward and from the other lengthwise of the carrier and one of which is pivoted to its carrier to swing relatively to the other tube-spreading member, and means for moving said tube-spreading members toward and from each other.

3. A tool for spreading the tubes of water-tube boilers, embodying a carrier comprising two main parts, a pair of spreaderheads disposed end to end in the same plane lengthwise of the tool one of which members is fixed to one of said carriers and the other of which is pivoted to the other of said carriers to swing in said plane relatively to the other spreader-head, and means for moving said spreader-heads toward and from each other.

4l. A tool for spreading the tubes of water-tube boilers, embodying a carrier comprising two main parts, a pair of spreaderheads disposed end to end in the same plane lengthwise of the tool one of which members is liXed to one of said carriers and the other of which has a central socket for receiving, and is pivoted to, one' end of the other of said carriers to swing in said plane relatively to the other spreader-head, and means for moving said spreader-heads toward and from each other.

5. A tool for spreading the tubes of water-tube boilers, embodying a carrier comprising two main parts one of which is slidable in the other, a pair of spreader-heads disposed end to end in the same plane lengthwise of the tool one of which members is fixed to one of said carriers and the other of which is pivoted to the other of said carriers to swing in said plane relatively to the other spreader-head and is also movable into and out of engagement with the other spreader-head lengthwise of the tool, and means for moving said spreader-heads toward and from each other.

6. A tool for spreading the tubes of water-tube boilers, embodying a carrier comprising two main parts one of which is a rod and the other a tube, a pair of spreaderheads disposed end to end in the same plane lengthwise of the tool one of which members is secured to said tube and the other of which is pivoted on said rod to swing in said plane, and means for adjusting said tube and rod relatively to each other.

Signed at New York, in the county of New York and State of New York, this 28th day of July A. D. 1913.

JOHN KEERS.

Witnesses:

HOWARD E. BROWN, C. S. CHAMPION.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for ve cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents,

Washington, D. C. 

